Q3 Grants: ACLU-Idaho Supports Immigrant Rights

Q3 grantmaking included 26 grants totaling more than $8.3 million, the latest step in our pledge to double 2025 funding.

“Right now, we’re seeing aggressive government moves to come after individual rights. As an organization that serves many communities, we’re having to be very strategic with limited resources,” says Leo Morales, executive director of American Civil Liberties Union of Idaho Foundation (ACLU-Idaho).

Based in Boise, ACLU-Idaho is a local affiliate of the national ACLU, a nonprofit civil rights organization founded on a vision of fairness and equity for everyone.

ACLU-Idaho is making immigrant rights a top priority in the face of policies fueled by misinformation, fear, and ignorance.

In Idaho and elsewhere, immigrant and LGBTQ communities are being targeted.

Unconstitutional laws and harmful policies and practices are combining to violate the rights of various communities in our country, particularly immigrants and people who identity as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer.

“The ACLU has been around for more than 100 years,” says Kelsey Dillon, ACLU-Idaho’s director of philanthropy. “And it’s stayed true to its founding principles: What is upheld by the Constitution?”

ACLU-Idaho is responding through litigation, policy creation, communications, and leadership development for members of immigrant and LGBTQ communities. But the need for action outpaces internal capacity.

ACLU-Idaho’s approach counters with truth, dignity, and shared humanity.

The ACLU-Idaho team focuses on harm reduction using a multifaceted approach. One strategy is litigation—which is how federal and state laws that harm individuals can be challenged, and how constitutional rights can be reaffirmed by the courts.

Additionally, the ACLU-Idaho team reviews proposed state legislation as it’s being drafted to protect the rights of all Idahoans. They also organize the community to act on its own behalf.

“If we don’t know our rights, it’s easier for them to disappear,” Morales says. “People in our local immigrant communities need a solid understanding of their rights so they can push back when those rights are violated.”

ACLU-Idaho created an immigrant-led storytelling program that lifts up our shared humanity and challenges harmful misinformation. Immigrants will share their experiences through public speaking events, on social platforms, and through traditional media outlets. The program will begin with 10 storytellers, grow to 20 in its second year, and spread more supportive narratives about immigrants statewide.

ACLU-Idaho’s programs make an ongoing and tangible difference.

ACLU-Idaho has been hosting know-your-rights sessions over the radio, in person in the community, and through social media. “We teach participants about their individual rights and how to document cases of abuses,” describes Morales.

That information helped those present at the October 2025 raid in Wilder, ID, where hundreds of law enforcement officers, including from the FBI and ICE, arrested more than 100 people. “Some were able to take out their cell phones and document what was happening. Some asserted their rights to law enforcement, who responded aggressively,” according to Morales. “Their efforts to document and advocate for their rights in the moment will help us hold the government accountable for its actions.”

ACLU-Idaho aims to use storytelling to shift public perception, humanize immigrants, and support long-term justice.

“Resource constraints force us to be especially focused,” notes Dillon. “It’s vital for us to identify partners to help fund the work we need to do to protect traumatized and embattled communities whose rights have been taken away or threatened.”

The Foundation’s two-year $480,000 grant will help ACLU-Idaho leverage its strong legal team, deep relationships in urban and rural communities across the state, and history of leadership in shoring up immigrant rights.

Additional Q3 grantmaking:

The Foundation’s pledge to double our grantmaking in 2025 includes expanded funding to some current grantees. Q3’s 26 grants totaled more than $8.3 million, including:

Lakota Funds of Kyle, SD—a $1 million general operating grant to expand the lending capital of this Native community development financial institution to meet increased demand as it helps grow the economies of the Pine Ridge and Rosebud communities.

Black Collective Foundation MN of Minneapolis—$250,000 to support its efforts to coordinate legal education and training focused on protecting race-conscious strategies and programming.

For more about our grantmaking, reach out to Paul Bachleitner, the Foundation’s communications director, at pbachleitner@nwaf.org.

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